A Cult (Part 1)

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and it’s leader(s).

In The Westminster Tradition, there are frequent ‘response’ sessions in which each person must publicly give their personal thoughts about the content of the recent sermon or special occasion. The responses are vetted, recorded and often sent expressly to Elijah Chacko to analyse. Although there is undoubtedly much to commend about discussing sermons and seeking to apply them personally, in The Westminster Tradition, the practice is rife with abuses e.g. individuals are expected to make frequent references to Elijah Chacko (whose name is often mentioned more often than Jesus’ own Name); if Elijah is present, the respondent comes under tremendous pressure to denounce themselves and flatter their leader; participants are under duress to publicly confess their sins (all on record and liable to future publication); certain teachings are repeated again and again – such mindless repetition is not scriptural and is a common method of cultic indoctrination; individual opinions and especially dissent or expressions of doubt are strongly discouraged. Denunciation sessions are also convened by Elijah Chacko. They can be devastating and supplant proper church discipline. Elijah is free to denounce any, but he himself must never be denounced.

The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry), or leaders prescribe what type of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).

Though some of these are dictated by God’s Word e.g. modest dress (1 Pet 3:3-4; Deut 22:5) and head-coverings in worship (1 Cor 11:5), yet for matters of marriage, employment, housing, children etc, each must live unto the Lord and be ready to give account of himself to God. In The Westminster Tradition, Elijah Chacko makes or very strongly influences these personal decisions… sometimes in great detail.

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar; or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).

Though the Great Commission might be mocked by unbelievers as ‘a special mission to save humanity’, Elijah sees his own mission (mandate) as not only special, but also unique to him. The Westminster Tradition is very elitist. Members view themselves as the only hope for their nations. Every act of God’s providence is related back to their own prayers, words and actions. Elijah Chacko sets raises himself up as a messiah: for he claims a unique and special anointing (Messiah/Christ both mean ‘anointed’).

The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

There is a very clear us versus them distinction in the Bible (1 John 1:5-7). There are two kingdoms (Cor 1:13); two fathers (John 8:38,44); two eternal destinations (Luke 16:26) etc. However, Elijah Chacko goes beyond the distinction between church and world, pitting The Westminster Tradition against every other Protestant denomination. He seeks to draw a distinction between his own ministry and the ‘institutional’, ‘hypocritical’, ‘pharisaical’, ‘liberal’, ‘pseudo-Protestant’ churches (terms which encompass virtually every other Protestant group worldwide). 

The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).

Elijah Chacko is accountable to no authority. His appointed elders are puppets: he could demote them in a moment. As the ‘anointed prophet of God‘, he himself is above any censure or discipline.

The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).

Many bare-faced lies have been told by those within The Westminster Tradition, despite the warning in the Bible that ‘all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death‘ (Rev 21:8b). The examples of Rahab and David are cited falsely to justify this practice. When such lies are discovered, the Son of God will be put to an open shame.

The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.

Conviction of sin is undoubtedly a work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). Elijah Chacko is unwilling to leave this work to the Holy Spirit, but likes to personally assist. In the pulpit and out of it, he is an accuser of the brethren. To him, information is power. He often discloses or even invents shameful secrets and bears false witness against his neighbours. He aims to puncture and humiliate his target and teaches them that his chief concern is for their salvation and that if they resist they forsake their own mercy.

Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.

Very few people are able to keep their former family and friends. In like manner, new members are frequently encouraged to quit their former jobs and set up businesses recommended by Elijah. It is my observation that businesses fail once Elijah begins to interfere.

The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

After almost all the Chinese churches separated from The Westminster Tradition in October 2018, Elijah resumed his work of proselytisation, with barely a pause for reflection.

The group is preoccupied with making money.

…to the extent of encouraging almost every mother to take up part or full-time employment. Those same mothers are expected to leave their children to be raised by others, while they themselves are to financially support The Westminster Tradition. Children are encouraged to aspire to high-paying professions. The irony is that members are reminded week in and week out of the temptation and the snare of riches in these times which Elijah teaches to be luke-warm, decadent, Laodicean. Why then the preoccupation with making money, if as he says ‘we go by the currency of faith‘?

Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.

Elijah Chacko would have people crossing from Singapore to Malaysia to attend meetings several times a week and often after a long work-day. He commendably exhorts members to spend an hour or two in God’s Word daily, but in practice arranges such a tight schedule of activities that there is simply no time for this most important of meals. Those who most need to meditate upon God’s Word (the pastors and elders) are too busy serving tables to do so. He assigns numerous unpaid duties to those who have their own houses and families to maintain.

Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

Most members of The Westminster Tradition are pressured to live communally, whether in Nepal, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and USA. Members living in such communities are encouraged to report individually and secretly to Elijah.